{"id":32758,"date":"2017-11-27T15:03:03","date_gmt":"2017-11-27T09:33:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/?p=32758"},"modified":"2017-11-27T15:03:56","modified_gmt":"2017-11-27T09:33:56","slug":"islamists-prevail-pakistan-force-law-minister-zahid-hamid-resign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/world-news\/islamists-prevail-pakistan-force-law-minister-zahid-hamid-resign\/","title":{"rendered":"Islamists prevail in Pakistan, force law minister Zahid Hamid to resign"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Tehreek-e-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah, other Islamic groups had laid siege on Islamabad last week protesting against a \u2018blasphemous\u2019 amendment to the Elections Act<\/em><\/p>\n

Late\u00a0on Sunday<\/span>\u00a0night, Pakistan\u2019s Federal law minister Zahid Hamid resigned from office; a decision that is likely to pave the way for ending a week-long siege of the country\u2019s capital, Islamabad<\/strong><\/a>, by hard-line Islamist groups who have been protesting against a now-abandoned \u2018blasphemous\u2019 amendment to the Elections Act, 2017.<\/p>\n

Hamid\u2019s resignation was a key demand put forth by the protestors \u2013 led by the hitherto little-known hard-line group Tehreek-e-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah Pakistan (TLYR) \u2013 as a pre-condition for ending their agitation, which had turned violent and claimed six lives while leaving over 200 injured through the weekend.<\/p>\n

The standoff had begun between the government and protestors over a recent amendment to the Elections Act, which sought to alter the \u2018Finality of Prophethood\u2019 declaration that electoral candidates in the country have to mandatorily make while being sworn-in.<\/p>\n

Although the government had hastily abandoned the amendment, with some sections having even declared it as a \u2018clerical error\u2019, the protestors had continued their agitation and pressed for Hamid\u2019s resignation as the first condition for restoration of normalcy.<\/p>\n

The TLYR has claimed that Hamid oversaw the introduction and passage of the Elections Amendment Bill 2017, which altered the text of a form that candidates contesting elections need to sign. The candidates were earlier expected to \u201csolemnly swear\u201d that they believe Muhammad was Islam\u2019s last prophet. The new amended form \u2013 now abandoned \u2013 asked candidates to swear that they \u201cbelieve\u201d in the finality of Muhammad\u2019s prophethood \u2013 an issue of semantics that the hardliners felt was the Pakistan government\u2019s \u2018softening\u2019 of stance against the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam \u2013 a persecuted minority group who many in the Islamic country don\u2019t consider to be Muslims.<\/p>\n

While a detailed statement by Hamid is still awaited, his fleeting comments have been flashed by media organisations in Pakistan in which he has claimed that the contentious amendment was not his handiwork but one that was \u201cformulated by a parliamentary committee comprising members belonging to all political parties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamid told Pakistan\u2019s Geo TV that he was \u201cnot directly responsible for the introduction of the controversial amendment to the Finality of Prophethood declaration for electoral candidates\u201d but that he had decided to step down from his office of the Federal law minister \u201cin order to restore peace in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pakistan\u2019s leading media organisation Dawn said in a report: \u201cThe minister\u2019s resignation comes in the aftermath of\u00a0Saturday\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0botched operation against protesters at Faizabad and \u2018successful negotiations\u2019 with leaders of the demonstration late\u00a0on Sunday<\/span>\u00a0night\u201d.<\/p>\n

With Hamid resigning, evidently under pressure from the Islamists, TLYR leader Khadim Hussain Rizvi addressed a press conference at the Faizabad Interchange protest site in Islamabad and ordered his followers across Pakistan<\/strong><\/a> to end the sit-ins and go home. He also announced an end to the strike being observed\u00a0on Monday<\/span>\u00a0and called for opening businesses and shops.<\/p>\n

Rizvi declared that the Islamist protesters camping at the Faizabad Interchange will depart from the protest site\u00a0within 12 hours<\/span>, as soon as implementation of the agreement reached with the government is started.<\/p>\n

The TLYR leader claimed that Pakistan\u2019s Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa and Major General Faiz Hameed had acted as guarantors for the agreement between the protestors and the federal government.<\/p>\n

A report by Dawn said that according to a document circulating among journalists that bears signatures of the protest leaders and Pakistan\u2019s Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal, among others, the federal government has agreed to the following demands put forth by the TLYR in order to end the sit-in:<\/p>\n

\n
Remove Federal Law Minister Zahid Hamid from his position immediately. \u201cTehreek-i-Labaik will issue no fatwa [religious decree] of any kind against him.\u201d<\/li>\n
The report prepared by Raja Zafarul Haq-led committee will be made public within 30 days and whoever is named in the report for being responsible for the change in the election oath will be acted against under the law.<\/li>\n
All protesters arrested between November 6 until the end of the sit-in from across the country will be released within one to three days according to legal requirements. The cases registered against them and the house arrests imposed on them will be ended.<\/li>\n
An inquiry board will be established to probe and decide what action to take against the government and administration officials over the operation conducted by security forces against protesters on Saturday, November 25. The inquiry should be completed\u00a0within 30 days<\/span>\u00a0and action will be taken against those found responsible.<\/li>\n
The federal and provincial governments will determine and compensate for the loss of government and private assets incurred from November 6 until the end of the sit-in.<\/li>\n
The points already agreed to concerning the Government of Punjab will be fully implemented.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Tehreek-e-Labaik Ya Rasool Allah, other Islamic groups had laid siege on Islamabad last week protesting against a \u2018blasphemous\u2019 amendment to the Elections Act Late\u00a0on Sunday\u00a0night, Pakistan\u2019s Federal law minister Zahid Hamid resigned from office; a decision that is likely to pave the way for ending a week-long siege of the country\u2019s capital, Islamabad, by hard-line […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":32760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1511],"tags":[1420,21,32202],"yst_prominent_words":[32255,32250,32254,32262,32260,32261,32253,32251,32249,32264,32256,32263,32257,27419,32192,32189,32193,32258,32252,32259],"ppma_author":[140543],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/d2r2ijn7njrktv.cloudfront.net\/apnlive\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Islamists-Faizabad-protest.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":140543,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"apnnewsdesk","display_name":"APN Live","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/478eacb893eda88aa6ed8d99b005bf58?s=96&r=g"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32758"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32758"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=32758"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apnlive.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=32758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}